Thank God itΒ΄s #NinetiesFriday.
Last week was fun, it was great to see in the comments that I was not the only one with celebrity crushes and that some of us actually had a crush on the same girl.
Back To The Nineties
I have been (s)trolling through memory lane looking for nice '90s leaves to pick up and talk about for a while now. Keeping my eyes open and not aimed at my cellphone.
That means you start noticing things, things like people that are between 22-30 using the #90skid.
We true 90s kids are sooo popular.
#90skid
Now I am not a #NinetiesSnob I donΒ΄t even like using #Β΄s but it did make me think.
We are almost in 2025, meaning that anyone 24 and younger has never even seen a nineties year.
I guess those using it under 24 think they were close enough or just like that 90s feel. I mean itΒ΄s true, real 90s kids were the coolest.
And Gen Z is a little jealous they are trying to go off the web by buying the old PlayStation 2s and iPods.
But what is a true 90s kid? If you are 25 Do you call yourself a '90s kid just because you spent a year in the nineties, so should I call myself a '70s kid?
What are your true kid years, I have an opinion on that, the years you truly live as a kid are from around 7 to 17.
Those are the years you break free from mommy's titties and start your own adventure.
Even though parental control was not as sickeningly thorough back then, before your seventh birthday they still tried to keep an eye on you.
From 7 years old things changed
I was allowed to go to school with my bike and had my younger brother tag along. Okay maybe we were 8 & 6 but you get my point, we would ride for about 15 minutes unsupervised and cross multiple roads.
We would be savaging the neighborhood far out of sight of Mommy's eyes and go into a few of the little forests nearby.
At the age of twelve, we would drive our bikes everywhere, even into the "big" city of Haarlem, home to about 150K people in the early nineties.
We could buy cigarettes, weed, and fireworks all by the age of 13 in those early Nineties. I never tried porn and alcohol, but the latter had an age restriction (Beer@16 Booze@18).
Do I need to mansplain why till 17, I hope not.
Hence the true #90skids have actually lived in the 90s between the ages of 7 & 17 if you ask me.
That true 90s experience of being on your own, no Google Maps, No Chat GPT, and the only way to call your mom was a payphone but nobody brought change, let alone a card for the phone booth.
But those places were great to shelter from the rain or to roll and smoke a joint itΒ΄s a shame that they are no longer obligatory because till 2008 every town needed to have a public payphone for every 5K of inhabitants.
How things change
The public payphone went, and the private payphone took over and addicted every freaking generation. Although mostly the generations that came after the #90skids. If I look around I see peeps my age still walking around without staring at their phone ....all the time.
But what a horrible world this has become!
People hide in their virtual fantasies through the means of a little screen.
They walk their dogs, not looking at anything but their phone. While those walks can be so relaxing if you let go of all the sensations this society fires at you daily.
It gets worse, yesterday a dad walking his two kids to the bus.... for the whole 5-minute walk he was watching a video.
The walks I took with my kid to the bus were those 5-10 minutes where we quickly connected over what was going on at school or after school.
They say parents have less time nowadays, well now we know why.
The worst are those parents taking their kids to the playground because kids are no longer allowed to go unsupervised. Once at the playground.
I hear the kids calling Dad, Dad, Dad, but Dad does not look up op from the screen and neither does Mom.
There are a lot of things I like about this modern age, but people should learn that a mobile phone is a tool you use instead of an appliance that uses you.
Step Away From The Screen
Seriously, they should start to educate people on the impact it has on yourself, your kids, and how you experience life. It kills the adventurous free spirit in kids exploring the world.
It kills the initiative of parents to think for themselves and come up with something that fits their kids instead of something that fits their Insta.
ItΒ΄s the biggest curse of the 21st century if you ask me, not the tool but the dumbasses that never learned how to use it properly.
Take A Little Good With The Bad
Of course, Google Maps is awesome, and a translator is the best thing ever for a guy like me living in a foreign country.
I can trade Bitcoin, look up questions (and I have a million), get weather updates, and even call my mom from almost everywhere (the latter is only a good thing if you are a nineties kid, for kids today itΒ΄s a curse).
Another great thing about being alive today is streaming. In the 80s we had no commercial TV and therefore only commercials between programs, not during programs.
I hated the nineties for introducing commercial TV with a break every 30 minutes or less to tell me how great this new detergent smells.
Secondly, we had no digital recording tools or streaming platforms.
Yes we were living in the Stone Age Of Television
The VCR was not the most trustworthy partner when it came to programming. Often it would record the wrong time, the wrong channel, the program would be delayed and you missed the end, or your mom would use your tape to record The Bold & The Beautiful.
So you had to be home to be sure you would not miss your favorite show. Now as a 7-year-old that was not so hard, but at 15 you preferred to be away from home as much as possible and come in just before curfew because hey you were a TRUE #90sKID!
Hence yes I am thankful for streaming and the internet, other than that....flatscreen lightweight TVs and monitors..... and.....ehhh?
Really what else would I consider a life changer, Bitcoin maybe but really things in everyday life....nada.
Bikini Bottom Line
I think people changed a lot, I mean the mentality. I might be romanticizing but I feel the neighborhood used to be more of a community. Because we needed each other to gossip and stay informed but looking back on those 25 years after the Nineties very little changed.
Peeps still drive cars, watch TV, get kids, have dinner, and lose themselves in vices or devices....the only thing that might have changed is that they just grew even less friendly or is that just me?
What The Fluff Is #NinetiesFriday
Let me start by saying I love Fridays, especially since #ninetiesfriday!
Thank goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!
#NinetiesFriday was brought to you by
WTF do I do on #NinetiesFriday?
Well, don't do what I do because that would be copy/pasta!
But some ideas are music, movies, television, sports, or really anything Nineties related.
I assume movie, TV, or music topic reviews or talk will be most common, but you could also talk about a sports memory or something else.
Think the Pop Culture of the times, but it would be great to hear about little known and interesting bands or entertainment items. Donβt forget to use tag #NinetiesFriday
@geneeverett will give 3 basic income units to a winning random post every week that uses the #NinetiesFriday tag. Also @thebighigg has jumped in to match for 6 total weekly prizes! If anyone else wants to sponsor with 1 unit let me know or just send if you donβt wanna commit to weekly π
Images by MyI and AI